Hugo A. Bernatzik travelled for over a year, between 1932 and 1933, to the Solomon Islands, New Guinea and Bali. His lively and fascinating account of the trip and his observations on myths, customs and traditions of the people he encountered were published as a book: Südsee: Travels in the South Seas, soon after translated into English (1935).

A large and careful selection of the best photographs, reproduced here in duotone and in large format, has been made for South Pacific . Bernatzik's images are always informative.The photographs depict fascinating actions such as the turtle hunt in the Solomon Islands reef or seafaring on an oroum, a Papuan double canoe. Everyday life in villages and the habits proper to each particular group come to life in the photographs. Finally, a series of portraits gives us an idea of the adornments worn by the people of the South Seas.

"In 1925, Austrian ethnographer and photographer Hugo A. Bernatzik traveled to Egypt photographing its people, architecture, and antiquities. He returned to Egypt in 1927, traveling through the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan to the Belgian Congo and finally to the west coast of Africa, documenting the inhabitants and their world. His remarkable photographs predate the work of George Rodgers and Leni Riefenstahl. The essence of Africa is captured in these remarkable images of dance sequences, rituals, festivals, spears, shields, and swirling dust."